“Pagan Christianity” by Viola and Barna

So, I watched a little “Hell’s Kitchen” last night (I was bummed that Ben went home) while reading “Pagan Christianity” as a great way to relax. As some of you know, we are in the beginnings of some major change here at the MFC. I have picked up some crazy ideas about becoming an organic, missional church. We are challenging things like, “do we need a building anymore? Do we ‘church’ or do we go to church? How can be better engage our community with a ‘go to the people’ mentality?” There are many, many more questions.

So to help me get a handle on this process I have been reading a lot. And I run across this description of a book:

“Most of what present-day Christians do in church each Sunday is rooted, not in the New Testament, but in pagan culture and rituals developed long after the death of the apostles.”

Who wouldn’t want to read a book like that! So, I picked up a copy of “Pagan Christianity”, turned on Hell’s Kitchen and got to it.

Let me give you a snippet from chapter 1:

WARNING: If you are unwilling to have your Christianity seriously examined, do not read beyond this page. Give this book to Goodwill immediately! Spare yourself the trouble of having your Christian life turned upside down.

Howeve, if you choose to “take the red pill” and be shown “how deep the rabbit hole goes”…if you want to learn the true story of where your Christian practices came from…..if you are willing to have the curtain pulled back on the contemporary church and its traditional presuppositions fiercely challenged….then you will find this work to be disturbing, enlightening, and possibly life changing.

Put another way, if you are a Christian in the institutional church who takes the New Testament seriously, what you are about to read may lead to a crisis of conscience. For you will be confronted by unmovable historical fact.

On the other hand, if you happen to be one of those people who gathers with other Christians outside the pale of institutional Christianity, you will discover afresh that not only is Scripture on your side – but history stands with you as well.

This is a great resource for helping people to see that the way we church needs some serious questioning. I don’t agree with everything the book says, but it makes some great statements that challenge you to think about what you are doing.

As we endeavor to Rebirth, I pray that we don’t perpetuate traditions for the sake of traditions but rather become an organism with Christ as our head.